As a result of subdued world trade, global passenger and freight traffic showed patchy growth in 1994. Key infrastructure projects continued to be promoted, most notably the much-delayed opening of the Channel Tunnel (Eurotunnel) to passengers on November 14. The most significant underlying trend, the change in emphasis from road to rail or public transport, was linked to both financial and environmental concerns. Russia was the only country with a significant reverse switch from rail to road transport.

Privatization of transport entities continued apace, although the nature, scale, and urgency of the timetable varied quite markedly. One common feature in transport operations was the increasing use of electronic means to provide better operational control and efficiency. The first world congress on intelligent transportation systems took place in Paris in December. John H. Earp

(For notable engineering projects in work, see below.)

AVIATION

Helped by low jet-fuel prices, the world airline industry began in 1994 to emerge from the longest and most damaging period of financial losses in its 75-year history. A trend that began in July 1993 for traffic to grow faster than capacity continued strongly into the following year, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecast a profit of $1 billion for its members as 1994 closed.

This was modest when viewed against the industry’s future needs to finance debt, build reserves, and sustain investments in new aircraft and advanced technologies, such as satellite-based navigation systems. It was, however, a significant improvement over the disastrous record of $15.6 billion in losses on international scheduled services over the years 1990-93. These losses represented nearly 4% of revenue, whereas the airlines should have been making net profits of between 5% and 6% of revenue if they were to face their future commitments with confidence.

Pierre Jeanniot, IATA director-general, denied that the industry’s malaise was a sign of decline or decadence, declaring that air transport was simply "reinventing itself." Jeanniot warned that the need for profitability was paramount. Without it, air transport would either die (as did maritime passenger transport) or become a political football in a game of subsidies (as with railroads). In the search for profitability, the attitude of governments was crucial. The industry was putting its own house in order, but the inaction, or wrong actions, of some governments was undermining its efforts, Jeanniot said, criticizing "inadequate infrastructure and misguided taxation, user charges, and environmental policies."

The airlines were certainly not short of advice on how to put their house in order. Committees of inquiry in the U.S., Europe, and Japan examined the industry and then advised it to liberalize, modernize, and become more consumer-conscious. In the U.S. a threat to the newly won profitability of the major airlines appeared in the shape of a rash of start-up companies offering cheap-fare, minimal-service, no-frills flights, while in Europe the big state-owned carriers continued to lay off thousands of employees as they pursued an often-painful course toward privatization.

In Europe a two-tiered airline industry began to emerge. One group was privately owned and financially successful, while the other was state-owned, relying on massive government handouts that were controversially sanctioned by the European Union (EU). Some major European airports--notably Heathrow, near London, and Frankfurt (Germany)--began to run out of takeoff and landing slots, making it difficult for new airlines spawned by EU liberalization to operate there. Modernization of the European air traffic control system continued on a national basis, with a campaign to have the system federalized within the EU gaining pace.

East Asia continued to outstrip the rest of the world in increases in numbers of passengers and tons of freight carried. New airlines emerging in the countries of the former Soviet bloc, as the previously monolithic civil aviation structure was dismantled and rebuilt, also did well--although from a much lower base and with worries in some cases over safety standards.

Overall, the world airline system carried almost 1.2 billion passengers in 1993 and nearly 18 million metric tons of cargo, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN aviation body. Within that total IATA airlines’ international scheduled passenger traffic rose 6.4%, and freight traffic was up 7.3%. The IATA forecast annual growth of 6.6% for the years 1994-98 and predicted that northeastern Asia would overtake Western Europe in air traffic by 1998, with comparative growth rates of 12.1% and 6.7%, respectively.

Air safety came to the fore in the U.S. in 1994 as the airline industry had its worst year for accidents since 1988. In all, more than 250 people were killed in six crashes on major and regional carriers. Crashes and other incidents involving the turboprop ATR-72 led the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to impose a ban on the planes in icy weather. Arthur Reed

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.